Please check your inbox for your confirmation. Sorry, there was an error registering your email. The National Endowment for the Arts will give nearly $2 million in funding to 80 arts organizations in Illinois, the agency said this week. The most prominent federal arts funder, the NEA will support organizations from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, to the Joffrey Ballet, the Chicago Dance History Project and theater companies large and small.
The announcement comes days before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated for a second term. During his first term, Trump vowed to slash
funding to the NEA . That effort ultimately failed. In Chicago, NEA funding also flows to the
city’s cultural department , which uses the dollars for regranting and programming. The Goodman Theatre won $25,000 to support its production of
Fat Ham, by James Ijames, now in previews. Pictured here are actors Trumane Alston and Ireon Roach. In total, the NEA awarded nearly $37 million nationally to 1,474 recipients across several grant programs. The funding streams include Grants for Arts Projects, a broad category meant to strengthen the nation’s arts and culture sector, and Challenge America, which is given primarily to small organizations that reach underserved groups. The NEA also awards research grants and literature fellowships. Locally, Northwestern University received an $85 million research grant to investigate music-based rehabilitation for minors who have suffered concussions. Other groups received dollars for everything from artist-in-residency programs to glassblowing workshops for community members injured by gun violence.
Here are the Chicago recipients in alphabetical order
Descriptions are according to the grant applications. Purpose: To support residencies and related activities for artists with disabilities. Purpose: To support a dance production and community programming for low-income families. Purpose: To support Re/Generation Studio, a free theater festival. Purpose: To support a performance-based gathering of Indigenous communities of the Midwest. Purpose: To support the Black Harvest Film Festival, presented by the Gene Siskel Film Center, and related public programming. Purpose: To support a professional development program focused on artists with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Chicago’s Black Girls Dance Ensemble received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support a student performance centered on the Black experience. Purpose: To support a series of Design Matters conferences. Purpose: To support the Black Playwrights Festival. Purpose: To support a student performance centered on the Black experience. Purpose: To support artist fees and personnel costs for the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Purpose: To support a recording project as part of America250. Purpose: To support the 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Actor Mike Myers chats with a reporter on the Chicago International Film Festival red carpet at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts on the South Side in 2024. The city’s film festival is an annual draw and received a $40,000 grant from the NEA. Purpose: To support Open House Chicago, a free, citywide event presented by the Chicago Architecture Center. Purpose: To support the development, production, and distribution of a series of theatrical productions for virtual streaming, based on traditional Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Purpose: To support community engagement activities related to CDHP’s archive of Chicago area dance artists’ creative work. Purpose: To support the DanceChance residency and performance program for the Chicago dance community. Purpose: To support the Chicago International Film Festival, a professional development conference for independent film and media artists, and related public programming. Purpose: To support Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival. Purpose: To support Shifting Voices, a professional development initiative for underrepresented filmmakers. Cynthia Yeh, a percussionist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, plays both the glockenspiel and vibraphone during a world premiere composed by Jessie Montgomery at the Symphony Center in May 2024. The CSO is among 80 arts organizations that received a 2025 grant from the NEA. Purpose: To support the premiere of She Who Dared by composer Jasmine Barnes and librettist Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, with associated engagement activities. Purpose: To support an artist-in-residence program featuring violinist Njioma Grevious. Purpose: To support presentations of orchestral works. Purpose: To support artist fees for pre-professional musicians of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, a program of the Negaunee Music Institute. Purpose: To support the Goodman Theatre’s production of Fat Ham by James Ijames, in partnership with Definition Theatre. Purpose: To support the Chicago Underground Film Festival and related public programming. Purpose: To support circus arts programs for youth. Purpose: To support a digital media production training program for youth living in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. Purpose: To support a chamber music concert series including commissions. Purpose: To support the tenth annual Afrofuturist Weekend festival. Purpose: To support a glassblowing program for youth and other members of the community injured by gun violence. Purpose: To support the commission and world premiere of a new work, with accompanying engagement activities. Purpose: To support Community Storytellers, a program supporting the production and exhibition of scripted films by independent artists. $10,000 Purpose: To support Music Under Glass (MUG), a free, all-ages community performance series. Purpose: To support the development of Silk Road Cultural Center’s “Road Less Traveled,” conceived by Jamil Khoury and written by Lyra Nalan. $10,000 Purpose: To support a resident vocal ensemble, including a concert of commissioned works. Purpose: To support exhibitions, residencies, and professional development opportunities for Chicago artists. Purpose: To support the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Purpose: To support youth dance instruction. Purpose: To support staff salaries and a professional learning institute related to an ongoing collective impact initiative in Chicago Public Schools. Purpose: To support the commissioning and premiere of new works from emerging choreographers as part of the Winning Works Competition. $10,000 Purpose: To support a series of Polish and American music concerts featuring the Lira Singers. Purpose: To support the annual Englewood Jazz Festival. Purpose: To support the commission and premiere of “Safronia” by composer and librettist avery r. young, with related engagement programming. Purpose: To support professional development for emerging teaching artists. Purpose: To support the creation and presentation of circus arts and theatrical workshops. Purpose: To support performances of “Treemonisha – A Musical Reimagining,” a new version of composer Scott Joplin’s opera with new arrangements by composers Jessie Montgomery and Jannina Norpoth and a libretto adapted from Joplin’s original by Leah-Simbone Bowen and Cheryl L. Davis. Purpose: To support an exhibition, catalogue, and related programming exploring how Indigenous people have engaged with, contributed to, and resisted American popular culture. Purpose: To support the Young Playwrights Festival.
Price, Alta L. Purpose: To support an exhibition of work by photographer Carlos Flores. Purpose: To support a chamber music concert series and associated community arts programming in Dixon, Ill.. Purpose: To support a series of music concerts for hospital patients and older adults. Purpose: To support the Global Playwrights Series, an initiative that fosters the development of new work. $10,000 Purpose: To support a youth arts residency program at the Illinois Youth Center inWarrenville. Purpose: To support free in-person and online studio art-making classes for Chicago youth. Purpose: To support arts education programs in hospitals for children and youth. Purpose: To support a tour of workshops teaching traditional Mexican songwriting. Purpose: To support the Josephine Project, an evening of interrelated performances inspired by Josephine Griffin Jones’ trek during America’s Great Migration from Memphis to Chicago. $20,000 Purpose: To support the production of “The Book of Grace” by Suzan-Lori Parks. Purpose: To support the youth-led design of a new intergenerational community center in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. Purpose: To support Currents, a performance project. Purpose: To support performances of “Groundwater” by composer Flannery Cunningham. Purpose: To support artist fees for the Neighborhood Choir Program and Dimension ensemble, providing choral music training for youth. Purpose: To support a music presenting project focused on contemporary Indigenous music. Purpose: To support the Street Level Youth Media Center, an initiative providing free digital film and media arts workshops for youth. Purpose: To support a clowning residency for hospitalized youth. Actor Aurora Penepacker plays the role of Natasha in
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Writers Theatre in Glencoe. Writers Theatre is among the 2025 NEA grant recipients from the Chicago area.
Illinois NEA grants recipients outside of Chicago
$10,000 Elgin, IL Purpose: To support an artist residency by Tibetan monks, including public performances, the creation of a sand mandala, and lectures. Purpose: To support visual arts and writing school-based residencies. Purpose: To support a clinical research study investigating the impact of a music-based rehabilitation intervention on cognition and auditory processing in concussed youth. Purpose: To support the creation and presentation of a musical production by student actors with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Purpose: To support an exhibition featuring the work of Japanese artist Hokusai at the College of DuPage’s McAninch Arts Center. Purpose: To support the world premiere production of “Dhaba on Devon Avenue” by Madhuri Shekar. Purpose: To support artist residencies and related educational and community programs. $15,000 Purpose: To support dance programs for K-12 students, including Stairway of the Stars (SoS) dance classes, Classical Ballet for New Audiences (CBNA), and the Summer Dance Intensive program. Purpose: To support the design and installation of murals in Mendota, Ill. Purpose: To support the publication and promotion of “Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora.” Purpose: To support a strings music education program. Purpose: To support the publication and promotion of an issue of the journal “Ninth Letter.”
